The Alice electric plane, built by Israel’s Eviation Aircraft company, completed its first flight on the morning of September 27. The plane took off from Washington’s Grant County International Airport. The Alice electric plane is zero emissions, has its first flight at 1,066m and lasts for 8 minutes.
Gregory Davis, president and CEO of Eviation, said: “This is a historic milestone. We haven’t seen a change in aircraft engine technology since we switched from the piston to turbine engines. The last time we saw completely new technology come together was in the 1950s.”
With battery technology similar to electric vehicles or mobile phones and 30 minutes of charging time, the Alice electric plane carrying 9 passengers can fly for 1 hour with a distance of 814.88km. The aircraft has a top speed of approximately 462 km/h. For comparison, a Boeing 737 will have a maximum cruise speed of 946 km / h.
The company Eviation was founded in 2015 and has been developing the Alice ever since. The company hopes to use the information gathered from the first flight to consider next steps. The aircraft will be delivered to customers in 2027, although this expected timeline is subject to change.
“Honestly, we’ve literally generated terabytes of data using the data collection system we have on board,” Davis said. So it will take us several weeks of data review to see how the aircraft performs compared to our model and analysis. From there, we will know what to do next.”
The company says it plans to develop an aircraft that is Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certified by 2025. It will then be a year or two of flight testing before delivering Alice to customers.
Three versions of Alice are currently at the modeling stage. One passenger aircraft model, one service aircraft model and one cargo model. The commuting passenger plane will have 9 passenger seats and 2 pilots and 385.5kg of luggage. The official aircraft model is designed with 6 seats with more space. The cargo plane will have a volume of 12.7 m3.
Alice’s takeoff was not without problems. The Alice electric plane was originally scheduled to take off in 2021 but was delayed. Eviation faced revenue problems and a series of weather issues that hindered testing progress. As a result, Alice’s flight date is pushed back.
CapeAir is expected to launch its fleet in service in 2023, but the planes Alice has purchased have been delayed. International shipping company DHL and air leasing company GlobalX have also announced plans to buy the plane.
Source: CNN
Source: Vietnam Insider